Don Lemon blasts his prosecution as straight out of an authoritarian regime: ‘We do not prosecute journalists for doing their job’

Don Lemon is taking a major swing at his federal prosecution, demanding that his legal team be given access to secret grand jury transcripts because he believes the proceedings were manipulated. He compared the entire ordeal to actions straight out of an authoritarian regime. The journalist wants to see those transcripts to determine if the government deliberately misled jurors into charging him with federal crimes, according to new legal documents.

TMZ reported that this isn’t just a standard legal maneuver, either. Lemon’s team argues there’s a serious chance the federal government misrepresented key issues to the grand jury to secure an indictment. You can understand why he thinks this is sketchy, considering a magistrate and a separate judge had previously reviewed the evidence against him and outright declined to press charges before the grand jury finally handed down the indictment. 

In the documents, Lemon calls the federal conduct in his case “highly unusual, nakedly political and inconsistent” with how other cases are handled in Minnesota. When you consider the vehemence of statements made by the Trump Administration about him, he claims the federal government was under direct pressure from President Trump to secure an indictment. Once the pressure was on, they went straight to a grand jury until they got the result they wanted.

I agree with him, it’s pretty shady

“These circumstances, never before seen in this District, and for good reason, raise serious concerns about the government’s presentation to the grand jury,” he stated. “To date, everything in this case has been irregular; we can assume the grand jury proceedings were too.” He argues that the need for disclosure outweighs the traditional importance of grand jury secrecy here, given the political implications and the irregularities he’s pointing out.

The charges themselves stem from an ICE protest that took place in Minnesota last month. Lemon insists he was simply covering the demonstration as a journalist, but the protest did rip through a church and disrupt a service. Federal prosecutors, however, claim Lemon went beyond just reporting; they allege he actually collaborated with the protest organizers. Lemon has consistently maintained he was only there in his capacity as a working journalist.

He didn’t mince words when describing the gravity of the situation and taking a shot at the Trump administration. “In the United States of America, we do not prosecute journalists for doing their job,” he wrote in the legal filings. “That happens in Russia, China, Iran and other authoritarian regimes. And yet the government sold this unconstitutional mess to the grand jury.”

Lemon appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He clearly believes this case is a politically motivated attack on the press, and he’s fighting hard to prove that the government’s process was deeply flawed and irregular. He’s demanding transparency to protect not just himself, but the freedom of journalism itself.